Perceptive, but not Perfect

Islam—as a religion, culture and civilization, and ideology and worldview—has been widely discussed and debated in numerous works written by Muslims and non-Muslims. Such is the proliferation in the literature on Islam in the current times that books about Islam are a “legion,” utilizing a diverse range of approaches: insider, outsider, macro, micro, civilizational, etc.

Authored by John Tolan (professor emeritus of history at the University of Nantes, France), Islam: A New History from Muhammad to the Present is a new addition to this very genre, narrating the history of Islam from the 7^th century to the 21^st century, extending across all the continents—from Asia to Africa and from Europe to the UK and the USA. Tolan, as a well-established academic historian (neither Muslim nor a theologian, p. xiv, cf. p. 250), claims to offer “a new history of Islam” by taking a step back and looking at the history of Islam “in all its richness and complexity” over fifteen centuries with the aim to “transform the way we see Islam and its history” (p. xv). That is, he has attempted to write “a new history of Islam” because (in his observation) “scholarship on the beginning of Islam has progressed in important ways over the past thirty or forty years, and this recent work is little known beyond a narrow group of specialists” (p. xv).

Structure of Tolan’s Book: Originally published in French in 2022 as Nouvelle historie de L’islam, the English version “is not simply a translation of the French edition but a rewriting and expansion” (p. xi). Organized chronologically with thematic coherence, the book consists of ten (10) chapters covered under three main parts: Part-I, Foundations (Chapters 1-4); Part-II, Expansion (Chapters 5-7); and Part-III, Modernities (Chapters 8-10).

Part-I includes chapters on the historical development of the Muslim community, from the Prophetic period to the end of 11^th century—a period when the Muslim world was ruled by three rival caliphates: the Abbasids in Baghdad, the Fatimids in Cairo, and the Ummayads in Spain. Part-II includes chapters on the religio-political developments, with their diversity and complexity, of the Muslim world from the11^th to the 17^th centuries, with a focus on the religious, political, cultural, spiritual, and intellectual developments. Part-III covers the discussions and themes of the modern period: Colonization and Its Discontents; Decolonization, Nationalism, and the Emergence of Political Islam; and (10) Between Reform and Radicalism: Being Muslim in the 21^st Century. These chapters are preceded by Acknowledgements (p. xi) and a 5-page Introduction (pp. xiii-xvii) and end with Notes (pp. 251-258), (chapter wise) Selected Bibliography (pp. 259-264), and a rich and reader-friendly Index (pp. 265-283).

Tolan on Intertwining Islam as Religion, Culture, and Civilization: In the Introduction, Tolan begins by asking the question What is Islam? Islam is a religion with the Quran and Hadith acting as the foundational sources for “its doctrines, rituals, law (sharia), and beliefs. “Islam is a religion characterized by a great diversity of beliefs and practices, a religion that has spread across an enormous territory and encompassed hundreds of languages and cultures. Islam is also a culture and a civilization.” (pp. xiii-xiv)

Tolan Presents a Thematic Analysis, not a Conventional-Chronological Narrative, of Islamic History: The book is not a conventional, chronological narrative of Islamic history, from past to present, but a thematic history and analysis of some major events and aspects—social, political, religious, intellectual, etc.—of fifteen centuries of Islamic history, starting from 7^th-century Arabia and extending “across all the continents,” illustrating “the complexity and diversity of Muslim civilization” through chosen examples from the history of Islam and Muslims (p. xv).

For instance, with respect to the cultural and intellectual developments of Baghdad, Tolan says that “Baghdad remained a major cultural and intellectual centre” (p. 63), which helped not only in the “intellectual flourishing” of physical sciences, medicine and technology, and social sciences, but also contributed enormously to the development of religious sciences like Muslim law and juristic schools, theology, tafsir, and “sciences of hadith” and much more (pp. 64, 65, 66, 67).

Regarding the three rival caliphates of Abbasids, Fatimids, and Umayyads of Spain, Tolan states that in the tenth and eleventh centuries, three were rival claimants to the title of Caliph, in Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba. Since then, the Muslim world has been politically fragmented, yet these divisions did not prevent the constant movement of people, goods, and ideas” (pp. 72, 74).

Expansion of the Muslim World from the 11^th to the 17^th Centuries: In part-II, Expansion, Tolan’s book covers a period of around seven (7) centuries, from the 11^th to the 17^th centuries, in chapters 5-7. He contextualizes this period with the developments and religio-political and intellectual diversity—in fact “tremendous diversity”—of the Muslim world, a diversity that “grew in the following centuries” as seen in the form of “the arrival of invaders from the north: Turks, ‘Franks’ (European Christians who arrived during the crusades), and Mongols,” producing “tremendous upheaval at the centre of the Muslim world” (p. 97).

With respect to the developments taking place in the 14^th century, a period when “the world of Islam stretched from Morocco to Sumatra and from Mali to the banks of Volga” (p. 116)—a “fascinating testimony” of which is provided by the Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, who traveled, among others, from the “Tangiers to Mecca and Baghdad”, the hub and heart of the then Muslim world (pp. 119-124) and from “Africa to China” (pp. 124-131) to Mali (pp. 131-133). Tolan, thus, uses this “unique testimony to paint a portrait of the Muslim world in the mid-fourteenth century in all its richness and diversity” (p. 117).

Islam and Muslims vis-à-vis Modernity and Modern Challenges and Issues: In Part-III, Modernities, chapters 8-10 cover the period of the 18^th to the 21^st centuries and focus on the legacy of colonialism, modern decolonization, and its impact on Islam throughout the world: chapter 8 covers topics like British India, the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt from Bonaparte to Muhammad Ali, the emergence of the Wahhabites, the French conquest of Algeria, reforms and rivalries between Egypt and the Ottoman empire, Qajar Iran, Islam and statecraft in 19^th century Africa, and the Arab Cultural Renaissance (Nahda) in the 19^th century. Similarly, in the 9^th chapter, it discusses the themes and topics like “Wahhabites and Muslim brothers from Arabia to Egypt (1925-1949)” (pp. 200-204), “France and Its Empire: Secularism at Home, Sectarianism in the Colonies” (pp. 204-207), “Decolonization and Nationalism (1945-1967)” (pp. 207-216), and “The Emergence of Political Islam” (pp. 216-221) The last chapter, broadly divided into two main themes, examines “the challenges posed to Muslims by globalization and geopolitical crises” (p. 224; cf. pp. 224-233), followed by a discussion on “Reform and Debate in Islam” (pp. 233-250), which looks at “various forces for reform that demonstrate the great diversity and dynamism of Islam” in the 21^st century (p. 224). The major argument put forth here is that while the 20^th century saw “the emergence of new forms of political Islam; the twenty-first century has seen struggles between various visions of how to reconcile Islam and politics” (p. 222). Moreover, Tolan highlights (among others) the works and thoughts of al-Banna (1920-2013) as one of the “sharpest critics of the cult of traditional Islam”, Indonesian Harun Nasution (1919-1998) as a Muslim intellectual who sought to “revive the spirit of rationalist theology”, Muhammad Arkoun (1928-2010), as a prominent Muslim intellectual of present times (p. 239), and “Muslim feminists” like Amina Wadud. He also discusses “Muslim immigration to Western countries” and Islam in America/ Europe/ UK/ France, etc., arguing that “Islam in Western countries is diverse” (p. 249).

Tolan’s Book in Sum: In the introduction, Tolan mentions that he is writing “a new history of Islam”, but not as a Muslim or a theologian, but simply as a historian (p. xiv), and at the end of this book, he wraps up as: “I simply dare to hope that this little book on the history of Islam written by a historian who is not a Muslim will be able to give readers an idea of the great richness and diversity of Islam throughout fifteen centuries of history and on all continents” (p. 250).

Though one cannot agree with everything Tolan describes or narrates, or the ways he interprets historical events, one cannot disagree with his perceptive style, thematic arrangement, and embracing and wrapping up all such breadth, diversity, and complexity—socio-political, religious, cultural, and intellectual—so masterfully. Summing up fifteen centuries in just 250 pages is a challenge in itself, but Tolan has done a remarkable job with such an accomplishment, though it has its limitations and flaws, which he graciously admits in the very beginning: “This book is of course partial and incomplete: I have chosen a few examples to illustrate the complexity and diversity of Muslim civilization” (p. xv).

In fact, a Muslim—and, by extension, any academic—can question the use of the word “new” in the title of this book, Islam: A New History, as it implicitly suggests that previous scholarship on Islamic history is either outdated or unauthentic and thus revised, corrected, and authenticated by Tolan. Moreover, by attempting to cover the entirety of Islamic history through selected examples and illustrations, Tolan may have “bitten off more than he, or anyone, can chew.”

Despite these potential limitations, and setting aside disagreements, Tolan’s Islam: A New History is a valuable resource for students and scholar—though Muslim readers, especially students, must approach this book with caution and careful consideration—offering comprehensive coverage, insightful narration, diverse perspectives, and rich annotations that shed light on the diversity and complexity of Islamic history.

Dr. Tauseef Ahmad Parray is an Associate Professor in the Department of Islamic Studies at Aligarh Muslim University. He previously served as an Assistant Professor in the Higher Education Department, J&K.